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Saturday, June 21, 2014

Gamification is one of the buzzwords in education right now,
and for a good reason:Gamification is empowering,
exciting, and under the right circumstances can be the disruptive innovator
many teachers desperately need in order to change the dynamics between
knowledge and the learner.

There is an explosion of edtech tools destined to gamify the
classroom, most of which are web-based, while others come in the form of an
app.Understandably, a teacher might
wonder what is the best way to navigate through this sea of new, and
subsequently, not thoroughly tested activities and tools.Throughout the school year I tried several
game-based platforms with my students.Here are three game-based classroom solutions that helped me transform
my fourth grade classroom into a dynamic learning environment.All three tools are completely free.Each platform is particularly strong in
specific areas, therefore, depending on their needs, teachers can utilize one
of the tools, or use a combination of two (or three), to maximize the impact on
student learning.

Socrative

The first, and probably the most popular game-based
classroom platform is Socrative.A prominent member of the “audience response
systems” family, Socrative is a powerful tool that offers many options to
teachers.It is also one of the most
diverse and adaptive of all platforms, as it offers three different highly
customizable modes: the typical question-based game mode, a mode called “space
race” which is a mode that aims to combine accuracy and speed, and a third mode
called “Exit Ticket”, which can best be used at the end of a lesson as a means
of taking the pulse of the classroom.

Socrative supports multiple choice, true/false, and open
response items.It also allows the user
to import images to the question items, and it features live results, immediate
feedback, and effortless data analysis.It can work equally well as a web-based tool as well as a mobile
app.Socrative is by far one of the most
user-friendly, most customizable, most comprehensive free pieces of software,
with some functions and abilities matched only by expensive edtech platforms.

Here is a short introductory tutorial on Socrative.

Kahoot

Kahoot takes a somewhat different approach than
Socrative.It is a solid platform that
is designed to follow on the footsteps of modern audience response systems.Although it is not as multidimensional as
Socrative, it excels in several key areas, one of which is its strong
gamification element.Kahoot’s carefully
chosen music effects and colorful interface create an atmosphere of
anticipation that motivates learners in a very intuitive way.

Kahoot is a tool that combines accuracy with speed.Therefore, it is the perfect tool for
activities and problems that do not require multiple steps or long
calculations.Kahoot is perfect for
quick identification questions.For
instance, some of the areas where a teacher can use this fun and entertaining
tool include multiplication tables, geographical locations, periodic table of elements,
roots of words or synonyms, and identification of animals or body parts.The ability to use pictures, and even Youtube
videos in question items is a noteworthy and a rare advantage.

Also, the clever point system Kahoot utilizes is an
additional bonus that truly elevates learning into an enjoyable and highly
rewarding experience.In addition, the
point system enhances the gamification element of the platform, making Kahoot a
big hit in the classroom.

Here is a short introductory tutorial on Kahoot.

FlipQuiz

Unlike Socrative’s multidimensional nature, and Kahoot’s strong
gaming orientation, FlipQuiz, the Jeopardy equivalent of edtech platforms, is a
modern take on the well-established idea of traditional game-show style review quizzes.

FlipQuiz is designed to accomplish a finite number of
goals.However, you should not let that
fool you.FilpQuiz is very good at what
it does, and thus, it can earn a place in a modern classroom.FlipQuiz allows you to create boards that run
like a typical Jeopardy game, making it a great choice for teachers who have
used Jeopardy games in the past, or are just people who love Jeopardy in the
classroom.Flipquiz makes it easy to
design game-show style activities in the classroom that transform learning into
an engaging and entertaining experience.Teachers have the ability to use links to images found on the web and
import them into the question items, type basic equations using subscript and
superscript text, and even include web links to spice things up and keep their
audiences involved at all times.In
addition, if you are teaching mathematics, FlipQuiz has a very nice surprise in
store for you!The platform now supports
mathematical formulas, which can be added using the LaTex language. Overall, FlipQuiz is a solid platform and a
must have tools for teachers who want to review material in their classrooms.

Here is a short introductory tutorial on FlipQuiz.

Some Final thoughts

Human beings love playing games because most games are
rewarding and entertaining at the same time.That makes Gamification the perfect vehicle a teacher can use to harness
his/her students’ innate motivation and curiosity, transforming learning into a
fun and intrinsically rewarding activity.As such, gamification allows teachers to create an environment that
enables all students to feel safe to take risks in the classroom.All three platforms mentioned above are very
good at achieving that goal.Teachers
can use all three platforms interchangeably to add some pizzazz into their
repertoire of teaching and keep their students’ interest alive at all times.

If you are a teacher that uses an iPad, chances are that you
are familiar with the following scenario.You found this amazing app that can really help your struggling
students. The potential of this app is great, as it appears that this
particular app can tap your students’ creativity and allow them to thrive in
ways that were unthinkable until now.The problem is that this app can only accomplish a small number of
things, which prevents the students from completing a multidimensional
project.So what do you do now?

Due to the unfortunate fact that there isn’t a “silver
bullet app” yet- an app that can accomplish many, very different tasks- we have
to rely on teachers’ and students’ creativity in order to accomplish multi-step
tasks using the iPad.Thankfully, app
smashing, - the process of using many different apps in conjunction with one
another to accomplish a task- as Greg Kulowiec of EdTechTeacher defines it,
comes to fill the void and opens the door for endless opportunities for
teachers and students to unleash their creativity and use the power of the iPad
to create some extraordinary products.

How does it work?

The basic premise behind app smashing, sometimes referred to
as “app synergy”, is to find a number of key apps that “play well” with other
apps and can communicate information across platforms. Some of the native iPad apps have this
capacity.Also, Explain Everything,
arguably one the most comprehensive, Swiss-Army type apps ever created, is
ideal for such tasks.However, the app
that is the most powerful and is used in almost every app smashing activity is
Apple’s Camera App.It allows the user
to store pictures, video, and sound files, which can be accessed later by other
apps, which is what makes app smashing possible.

In a typical app smashing activity a student can use an app
to create a product such as a word cloud, a picture collage, a map, or a slide
show presentation.Then the student can
save his/her creation on the Camera App, even if the product in this stage is
not a picture (just click the Home and the Sleep/Wake buttons simultaneously
and your idevice will take a screen shot).From there, the student can choose to open those pictures in other apps
that build additional layers of creativity.For instance apps such as Explain Everything, ThingLink, 30Hands, Haiku
Deck, or Book Creator, can be used in that stage of the project for further
annotation, feedback, analysis, or evaluation.Finally, the student might choose to import one, or multiple projects,
in iMovie and create a final product that truly redefines his/her learning
experience.The last step should also
include publishing the final product in appropriate and accessible ways.

Although my personal work has been directed towards the
elementary school audience – for those with limited iPad experience in the
classroom, as well as for those who are proficient users of the iPad – I found
that students and teachers of all grade levels find the concept of app smashing
exhilarating.Our middle school students
for instance, have used app smashing to create social studies reports, and some
of our fifth graders have used app smashing to illustrate their high order
thinking in multifaceted ways.My fourth
grade students have used app smashing to create augmented reality projects as
well as their own science iBooks.They
loved every second of the process and were very proud of the, admittedly, high
quality products.

Some Final Thoughts

App smashing projects have the ability to enable student
collaboration to produce creative and innovative answers to problems.In addition, due to the fact that app
smashing encourages creativity and innovation, it appears that every app
smashing activity is aligned to several Language Arts and Math Common Core
Standards across grade levels. It is
truly amazing to watch students unleash their innate creativity by building
extraordinary technology projects using the iPad.Undoubtedly, app smashing creates unique
opportunities for teachers and students to explore and discover the true power
of the iPad.

Leap Motion is a brand new and highly promising device.For those who never heard of the Leap Motion controller
before, it’s a small piece of hardware, compatible with both, Macs and PC’s,
that allows the user to control the device without touching the keyboard, the
mouse, or the screen.Its pedagogical
potential persuaded me to spend the $80, a somewhat steep asking price, and try
it in my classroom.In my trials I
discovered that the petite device can make an excellent teaching companion, and
can complement a teacher’s arsenal of teaching tools.

Given the fact that Leap Motion is a newcomer to the filed
of technology, the number of available applications, particularly education-oriented
applications, is naturally, low at the moment.However, the few that are available, if used appropriately, can elevate
any lesson to a highly enjoyable augmented reality experience, and as such,
they can provide unique learning opportunities for all students, especially kinesthetic
learners.Furthermore, it appears that the
Leap Motion controller has a great potential in the field of special education.
Special education students of all ages
can benefit greatly from the advantages the small device offers.

Teaching Earth &
Space

The fact that the enormous size of planets, stars, and
galaxies make them such an abstract concept to explain, teaching kids about
space has always been a challenging task for many teachers.Thankfully, Leap Motion comes to fill that
gap and offer a unique, Tony Stark-like learning experience with Solar Walk.Solar Walk is an app that costs $4.99, but in
my opinion it is the best 499 cents I ever spent to buy a tool that helps me
explain the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy in such a comprehensive way.Students were able to use the Leap Motion controller
to zoom in and away from the Sun, the planets of our solar system and their
moons, as well as all of the major satellites that orbit Earth.Using just their index figure, they were able
to pull up facts and graphics about the internal structure of each planet, general
information about a planet’s size, length of day and year, surface temperature,
as well as the names of scientific missions and probes sent to these
planets.As an added bonus, the app
offers true 3D environment with 3D glasses students can get at any movie
theatre.Students were so excited to
work with Solar Walk and so inspired by its unique approach, that they insisted
they wanted to write their own ebook about our solar system (look for it on the
iBooks store in the near future).

Teaching Social
Studies

Arguably, Google Earth is the most modern, detail packed,
and up-to-date map tool teachers can use to teach history and geography. With Leap Motion teachers end up with nothing
less than Google Earth on steroids.Once
you manage to master the admittedly highly sensitive controls, Leap Motion
seems to have been created to complement Google Earth.Both tools work in absolute harmony, and the
user is able to perform flyovers over the entire world.Our students were having a blast showing off
their piloting skills and delivering a report on how to use cardinal directions
as well as pinpointing the locations of major geographical features of the
state of Florida.Recently, Google added
street view to
the Galapagos Islands.I can’t wait
to use Leap Motion and Google Earth later this year, to teach animals and their
unique ecosystems using street view on the Galapagos Islands.

Teaching Lower
Elementary

There is something to be said about the Leap Motion’s
potential in the lower elementary grades.There is a limited, at the moment, number of very good apps on the Airspace
store - Leap Motion’s equivalent of the Apple or Google app stores -designed
specifically for young learners.These
apps can help students develop eye-hand coordination skills and at the same
time explore educational concepts.Caterpillar
Count is a free app that kindergarten, first, and second grade teachers can use
to teach counting skills as well as odd and even numbers.Curious Kids is another app designed with the
young learner in mind.The cost is $1.99
and can be used by kindergarten and first grade teachers to teach skip
counting, and animal and piano sounds. Both apps do an excellent job in helping
students develop their motor skills while working on number sense.

Leap Motion and Gamification

Undoubtedly, the Leap Motion controller gives new meaning to
one of the most popular modern trends in education: gamification.Learning becomes a game, regardless of what
you are doing with Leap Motion.Its
kinesthetic approach turns every activity into an enjoyable, highly interactive
learning experience.The students’
interest in the lesson is clearly more intense, and the sincere and voluntary effort
they put into the tasks they perform keeps them engaged and motivated for
longer periods of time.More
importantly, the students are more likely to retain the information they learn,
and to apply this information to everyday situations to solve problems.If you have been thinking about incorporating
game-based
activities and interactive learning in your classroom, the Leap Motion controller
is a great starting point.

Some Final Thoughts

Every now and then, new and promising
technologies come to disturb the waters, and some of them eventually cause
disruptive innovation. Leap Motion
belongs to that category. It is a product
with an incredible ability to tap people’s creativity, especially students, and
open the door to unimaginable innovation.
For those familiar with the SAMR Model, this is “redefinition of
learning and accomplishment of tasks previously inconceivable” at its best. Early adopters and technology enthusiasts
will probably love the Leap Motion controller, and they will try to find
innovative ways to use it in the classroom.
However, eventually all teachers might want to give the minuscule device
a shot in their classroom.

The Flipped Classroom model is gaining momentum in
classrooms around the world.

Much has been said and
written about the benefits and advantages of the Flipped Classroom
throughout the year, so during the last three weeks of school I decided to
experiment with this model of instruction and I flipped my math classroom.Using Explain Everything on my iPad, I created
a series of videos that my students watched prior to coming to school.In the classroom I had the opportunity to
take advantage of the extra instructional time, as well as their excitement
about sharing the knowledge they gained by watching the videos I created, and
tried to engage my students in high order mathematical tasks.Although the results were highly encouraging
and made me a fervent proponent of the Flipped Classroom, there are four things
that I think every classroom teacher should know before they start using the Flipped
Classroom model.

Some Students Might
Need Time to Adapt

Teachers should keep in mind that many students will need a
week or two to adjust to the new “homework reality” that the Flipped Classroom
is based on.In fact, during the first couple
of weeks many of the most responsible and hard working students who typically
never miss a homework assignment will manage to “forget” to do their
homework.Although I suspect in my case,
classroom fatigue is partially to be blamed for this phenomenon, after all, the
end of a very long school year was close, I believe there is a deeper reason
for this unwanted occurrence.Some
students might not do their homework because they are used to a more concrete
and traditional paper-and-pencil homework assignment, and therefore they might
perceive this “new homework” as abstract, irrelevant, and perhaps not as
important.Providing access to a laptop
and privileges to watch the videos before the beginning of the school day may alleviate
some of the problems, but eventually the students will have to understand that
in a flipped classroom, completion of the homework assignment is a key
component to successful learning.

Teacher-Made Videos
Must Be Engaging

Watching teacher-made videos before class is one of the most
commonly used components of the Flipped Classroom model.It is widely accepted that the most effective
videos are the ones that manage to keep students accountable for their
learning.This can be achieved by using
a number of clever techniques to attract the students’ attention and captivate
their interest in the lesson.For
example, at key parts of the lesson/video the teacher might instruct the
students to pause the video and answer a question, or take notes, or make a
prediction, or work on a short problem that requires students to apply recently
learned knowledge.Such techniques make
students active participants and empower them to take control of their own
learning. In my short Flipped Classroom
trial, I found that the video lessons in which I instructed the students to
pause the video and answer specific questions about the nature of the math
concept the lesson explored, led to some unexpectedly rich discussions in the
classroom, transforming my students into self-motivated and dedicated learners.

Recording Time Might
be Longer That you Anticipate

Teachers should know in advance that the time they will be
spending to record lectures will be longer than anticipated, at least in the
beginning.A ten-minute video will take
much more than ten minutes to complete.First, the teacher will have to collect all of the resources and
previously prepared material he/she intends to use in the lesson, such as background
pictures, maps, or math problems to name a few.In addition, unless you are proficient in screencasting, chances are
that you will need to repeat recording the same lesson several times in order
to create the highly effective video you originally had in mind.This can be frustrating and even a deal
breaker for some teachers.Most people
who flipped their classroom agree that in the beginning, teachers should expect
to spend an average of 30 minutes of recording time to create a 10-minute
lesson.However, after the first
four-five lessons, most people become more comfortable with screencasting and
recording times reduced significantly.

Video Formats Should
be Chosen Carefully

Teachers need to make sure in advance that their students
will be able to access the videos, and that these videos will be in formats
that are playable by most video players.I ran into this problem myself.Using Explain Everything, I saved my videos in .mp4 format.It turns out that some of my students have
computers at home that are really old and not equipped with up-to-date video players.Consequently, they were not able to watch the
videos I made.Teachers should keep in
mind that many students will not have access to the latest and greatest of
technology, and therefore they might not be able to access videos created on
iPads or lessons recorded using modern software. Saving each lesson in multiple formats might
be a solution to this problem.Also, creating
a Youtube channel and posting videos on Youtube will make videos more
accessible to all students.

What about you?Have you flipped your classroom yet?If yes, what are some obstacles you ran into?
Do you have any advice/insight to share?